Why Your Anatomy Decides What Piercings You Can Get
(And Why That's a Good Thing)

There used to be a saying in the piercing industry: "If I can pinch it, I can pierce it." And honestly? That's not technically wrong. But it is dangerously incomplete.

Yes, most things are pierceable in the most literal sense. But pierceable doesn't mean viable. It doesn't take into account how your body is actually structured, how a piercing is going to heal, or what it's going to do to you six months down the line. And that distinction matters enormously.

What anatomy actually means for your piercing

Your anatomy is the way your body has naturally developed, sometimes inherited, sometimes unique to you. The ridges of your ear, the depth of your cartilage, the amount of tissue between structures, the shape of your navel, the bridge of your nose, the curve of your brow. All of it directly affects what piercings your body can support.

This is why I do anatomy checks before all piercings, even ones that might not seem anatomy-dependent, because the truth is that all piercings are anatomy-dependent. Every single placement relies on having the right amount of tissue, the right angle, the right structure to support jewellery long-term. My first job before any piercing is to look at what you're actually working with before we get excited about the piercing and the jewellery.

Left: placement dots marked before we start. Right: the same ear with fresh piercings in. This is what a proper anatomy check looks like in practice.

One of the most recent examples I saw in the studio: a client came in with a mid-helix/high lobe piercing that just wouldn't heal. It had been causing pain and she'd eventually taken it out. Looking at the scarring and placement, I knew immediately why. There simply wasn't enough tissue between her contra cartilage and outer helix ridge. The angle they'd had to pierce at to avoid hitting cartilage created constant pressure from the side and back. The anatomy wasn't there to support it. Somebody pierced it anyway.

That piercer wasn't necessarily bad. But they either didn't look closely enough, or they looked and pierced it anyway. Neither is acceptable.

The navel: the most common anatomy conversation I have

Navel piercings are one of the most popular piercings going, especially among younger clients, and they are also one of the most anatomy-dependent. A traditional navel piercing requires a very specific structure to work: a navel shelf that is present and stable whether you're standing, sitting or lying down, and that doesn't collapse when you bend, twist or move.

Why does this matter so much? Because the navel area moves constantly. Imagine not being able to bend down to tie your shoes, or sit at a desk, or do anything involving your torso without the piercing being affected. If the shelf collapses with movement, the piercing is being compressed and stretched constantly, and it will not heal. It will migrate, reject, or cause ongoing pain and irritation until it's removed.

We check your anatomy standing, sitting and lying down, multiple times, specifically looking at whether that shelf holds. And sometimes it doesn't, and that's completely fine because the industry has developed a brilliant solution.

The floating navel is a piece of jewellery similar to a traditional navel curve, but without the bottom ball, and set at a slightly different angle. This allows us to pierce navel anatomy that doesn't have a traditional shelf, or that collapses when sitting. It opens up the piercing to people who would previously have been told no outright, and it heals much more kindly on the anatomy it's designed for.

When the answer is no

If your piercer says no, you should listen. I mean that genuinely. A piercer who turns you down for an anatomy reason cares more about your body and your safety than they do about the money. That's exactly who you want making permanent changes to your body.

We do not say no lightly. I will always try to find an alternative, a different placement, a different style of jewellery, a different approach that might work. But I am not a magician and I cannot alter your anatomy. There is no surgery that gives you a navel shelf if you don't have one.

I'll also say this: sometimes I'll refer you on because a placement is beyond my current skill level rather than because it's impossible. That's not me saying I'm not good at what I do. It's me saying I would rather someone with more experience in that specific placement assess you and, if they can do it safely, brilliant. Your safety always comes before my ego. I would far rather you get a second opinion and come back to me with a yes from someone more experienced than have me attempt something I'm not confident in and leave you with a failed piercing and potentially really nasty scarring.

Why "they're a nurse" doesn't mean what you think it means

With the rise of chain piercing studios, there's been a lot of marketing around piercers being nurses or healthcare professionals. And while I have enormous respect for nurses, being a nurse does not make you a skilled piercer. Understanding anatomy in a clinical sense and understanding how piercing interacts with living tissue, how jewellery sits in a channel, how placement affects healing, how to read whether a specific anatomy can support what a client is asking for — these are completely different skill sets.

Piercing is a craft. It takes years of hands-on learning, specific mentorship, and genuine investment in understanding both the art and the anatomy. Please don't assume that a medical background automatically transfers.

The short version

Your anatomy is not a barrier. It's information. It tells us what we're working with and how to design something that's going to heal beautifully and sit exactly where it should for years. When I assess your anatomy before agreeing to pierce, I'm not looking for reasons to say no. I'm looking for how to say yes in a way that's actually going to work for your body. 🖤